Wyoming, Michigan - circa 1962
Cool vintage shot capturing a little of the Montgomery Wards anchor store in Rogers Plaza mall, which is now known as the Rogers Plaza Town Center, after a major 2002 renovation/redevelopment makeover. Pretty obscure little mall, actually.
Btw, time was very short for me this weekend (been away from the computer), so I couldn't post much the past couple days. Just have time for this one at the moment, but I'll get back in the swing and post lots more later today, so stay tuned groovy ones! :)
Mall history: 1960 - present
Current website: n/a
Current aerial view
Previous entries: none
Not only is the facade of the Wards store cool, but just look at all those great old cars! Niiiiice. Wish I could walk into this picture and look around.
ReplyDeleteHistorical info time!
ReplyDeleteOriginal anchors: Wards, Kroger, Cunningham Drugstore, Kresge. Turn-Style was added to the east end later, possibly in the 1970s. TurnStyle was later split between mall space and "Roger's Catalog Showroom" (later BEST). When BEST closed, half of it became Big Lots, and the other half was more recently redivided. Office Max took a portion of the original TurnStyle; Kroger is now MC Sports. Wards was torn down for AJ Wright (attached to mall) and Family fare supermarket.
I love that Wards. Very funky!
ReplyDeleteWyoming is a suburb south of Grand Rapids. I remember shopping at Wards there when I was a kid. Rogers Plaza pre-dated Woodland, which soon became the bigger & better place to shop on the SE side.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the aerial, it appears to be three-quarters a mall, which doesn't make sense. Was there a center walkway?
ReplyDeleteScott
It is enclosed, always has been. In fact, here's a map:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/plz7s
Anonymous #1: I'm right there with ya!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #2: Thanks for the great additional notes!
Anonymous #3: Thanks for the map link.
Anonymous #4...er, oh, there is no #4. Sorry, I was on a roll with the Anonymouses. :)
Not only is that Ward's store cool, it's also called 'Ward's", at a time when the storefronts usually had the full 'Montgomery Ward' name with a m-over-w logo near it.
ReplyDeleteMonkey Wards didn't coin themselves officially as 'Wards' until the late 1990s, shortly before the chain up and went to the big mall in the sky.
That's what stuck out for me with this image.
I loved Montgomery Wards. Unfortunalty they dug their own grave by not rapidly expanding into suburban mall. Too bad, it was a great store with great bargains.
ReplyDeleteAnd, it was "Ward Week," no less!
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is, it seems that with every step forward this mall takes, another two or three tenants leave. Two-three years ago I loved to stop and shop at the Hallmark, KayBee toys, Fashion Bug (biggest and best in town complete with 80's neon signs above the fitting rooms) and bargain books which were all in the same wing. Now in 2006 ALL of those stores have moved out...and not much else is moving in...
ReplyDeleteRogers Plaza was one of the very first enclosed shopping malls in America, first opened in 1959. Since then, mall developers have realized that they need a much, much larger - and more SQUARE piece of land to center their malls in.
ReplyDeleteRetail, like many industries, is going through huge changes, with the advent of online sales and the like.
However, for a suburban or neighborhood shopping, it really is a cool place to shop, especially since it's been renovated so well!
The Wyoming-Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting its 8th Annual Taste of Wyoming event in the4 Mall October 25, 4 - 8 pm.
the center concourse is covered, as mentioned. however, it is at a different height than the storefronts, creating clerestory windows all around the periphery of the center concourse--a modernist touch that wasn't designed out of the remodel a few years ago. There were a few other modernist touches that were covered or deleted, such as the Howard Miller clocks and the beautiful (but cracking) terrazzo floors.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Wyoming and hung out at Rogers Plaza in the late 60's through the late 70's. They had great stores there. I cool hobby store, "The green Apple" I think it was called that sold records. Then in the 80's it went down hill and then Wards went under. Now its mostly occupied by government agencies such as the USPO, Secretary of State, etc... It could be a great mall again if the current owners didnt charge such an astromical monthly rent.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Wyoming and hung out at Rogers Plaza in the late 60's through the late 70's. They had great stores there. I cool hobby store, "The green Apple" I think it was called that sold records. Then in the 80's it went down hill and then Wards went under. Now its mostly occupied by government agencies such as the USPO, Secretary of State, etc... It could be a great mall again if the current owners didnt charge such an astromical monthly rent.
ReplyDeleteThanks to whoever dug this photo up. In the 1970s, I worked at a burger joint across the street called KumBak Hamburgs. It was right next to Stuart Noordyk Pianos & Organs, and Kinney Shoes. Also Rogers Department Store, Rogers Distributing, Baskin Robbins and the Butterwagon.
ReplyDeleteAll gone. Good times.
Dave do you remember what their cheese was,like a brand or something.I'm dting to make one all I can think of is velveta
DeleteOhhh the butter wagon, I grew up reall close the mall and my friends and I spent so much time with in Rogers Plaza.’that mall wall super busy n the late 60’s and 70’s. Montgomery Wards was actually awesome at that time.
DeleteI remember Ward's! Our family got our first in-window air conditioning unit from there! It was even "Montgomery Wards" branded! It was a top of the line model back in the day complete with electronic controls with red LED indicators. Our family shopped there until its closing. I still remember the TV ads they ran just before the fall of the company.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have a picture of KumBak to post? Also what was the restaurant up by Miracle Lanes just west of 131 on the north side of 28th that had hot dog buns that were formed kind of like a boat, the hot dog sat in a little groove in the top of the bun. I think the building sat way back and was red and white and had a barn type roof.
ReplyDeleteIt wasnt Miracle Lanes, it was Holiday Lanes. My family owned that bowling alley from 1955-97. The restaurant next door was the Red Barn. A couple of the Red Barn restaurants were turned into XXX movie theaters, one of them is on 28th street near Madison.
ReplyDeleteThis Montgomery Wards in Wyoming, Michigan is where I discovered Santa is a fake - around 1965. He had a chair in the auto dept., which became a toy-land at Christmas. I saw Santa tug at his fake beard, and forever after knew he wasn't real. This Wards also had a running vacuum cleaner running near the escalator's that forever balanced and spinning beach ball with it's air. Escalator's were rare around Western Michigan back then.
ReplyDeleteIn the mall itself, the floors were sealed concrete, not unlike something you'd see today in a parking structure.
We used to drive out to Rogers Plaza and Rogers Dept. store to shop. Then we went to McDonald's! and Ole Taco~!
ReplyDeleteAhhh yes Ole Taco…… forgot about that place
DeleteI have a picture of KumBak Restaurant accross the street.
ReplyDeleteI remember an Eberhards food store on the corner of Clyde Park and 28th.
ReplyDelete